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Agents of the Vault – Part 22

Part 22 of The Agents of the Vault is here! Grisom and Charlie realize the hotel is on fire!

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Agents of the Vault
Part 22
By Grant Baciocco

Both Charlie and Grisom had heard something come crashing into the kindling dry lobby room below them.  They both reached for their guns.  Grisom winced as he drew his and then again he attempted to lift himself  up off the edge of the bed.

“You should sit.” Charlie chided, helping Grisom steady himself.

“If Jane ends me today, I’ll be on my feet when she does.” He said through grit teeth.

Both Charlie and Grisom kept their guns trained at the door, expecting Jane and her Pinketons to come busting through at any second.  They both held their breath, fingers on their triggers and it wasn’t until they exhaled that Charlie made the discovery.

“Smoke.” He said, looking down at the whips of black smoke coming up through the thin floorboards under them.

“She’s burning us out.”  Grisom said, looking around.

“How are we getting the trunk out?” Charlie asked, looking towards it.

“We don’t.” Grisom replied, grabbing spare bullets out of his bag at a great deal of pain that he tried to ignore.

Charlie stood dumbfounded.  “It’ll burn.”

“It won’t.” Grisom said, stuffing the bullets into his pockets.  “The trunk has enchantments on it.  No harm will come to it.  It can’t be opened, it can’t be burned.  Let’s just hope it the desk survives the fall when this building burns and it falls to the ground floor.”

“There’s no way out of here but down the steps and out the front door, if it ain’t blocked by fire yet.” Charlie said, gripping his pistol tight.

“Then that’s the way we go out, I’ll go out first, draw their fire, you follow behind, but we going out one way and one way only.”

“How’s that?”

“Guns blazing.”

Charlie nodded and helped Grisom towards the door.  Thick smoke was wafting up the stairwell.  As they got to the top of it, they could see the fire was to the right of the stairs and they had a clean shot to the door.

Charlie smiled, “Let’s hope the stairs hold out otherwise, we might fall into the fire.”

Grisom smirked, “I think the real fire is waiting for us out on the street.  The flames downstairs might be the easy way out.”  Grisom pulled the handkerchief tied around his neck up over his face.  Charlie followed suit.

Charlie helped Grisom down a step at a time.  Both tried not to choke on the smoke as it filled their lungs.  Blinking their eyes to keep them clear.  When they’d reached the bottom step, Grisom took his arm from around Charlie.

“Okay kid.” Grisom said, “Let’s do this.  On three.”

Charlie nodded.

“One.”

Charlie gripped his pistols in either hand.

“Two”

The heat from the fire in the room behind them grew, about to propel them out into the street.

“Three!”

Grisom was out the door and into the street.  Charlie crossed the threshold of the hotel as he heard the gunshots begin.  Unsure if it was Grisom’s or Jane’s gun that was firing, he raised his guns and stepped out on to the porch of the hotel.

©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com